6. Fostering creativity and innovation in cooperative federalism—the uncertainty and risk dimensions

Policy narratives in OECD nations are now starting to stress the importance of ‘innovation’ as a public sector objective. On one level, this reflects efforts to align thinking with a wider discourse on innovation, arguably in an effort not to be left out of the picture. For example, Geoff Mulgan3 has argued persuasively that, contrary to some common assumptions, the public sector has a longer history of innovation than the private sector. Indeed, public sector innovation created the modern world—an operating environment in which private sector innovation per se has flourished.4